Jim Greenwood, the longtime head of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, plans to exit the group at the end of next year, timing his departure to come after the 2020 U.S. elections.
|
Greenwood, however, will stay on in a transitional role into 2021 to help his successor "educate the public and lawmakers about the enormously complex and expensive challenge of bringing new medicines to market," said Jeremy Levin, CEO of Ovid Therapeutics Inc., who is serving as BIO's chairman.
Greenwood has led BIO for 14 years — a job he took after deciding in 2004 he would not seek reelection to Congress, where he served for a dozen years, representing Pennsylvania's 8th district as a Republican.
He had previously served in Pennsylvania's legislature, first in the state's House for six years and in its Senate for an equal term.
Greenwood said he had been "twice blessed" being able to serve his constituents in Pennsylvania at home and on Capitol Hill and also lead a group that represents "extraordinary scientists and entrepreneurs of the biotechnology industry."
As BIO's president and CEO, Greenwood led the group to one of its major victories in Washington when lawmakers gave brand-name biopharmaceutical makers 12 years of exclusivity protection against lower-cost versions of their biologic therapies, or biosimilars.
Greenwood had pushed for the 12 years of protection in the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, which was adopted by Congress in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act. The law gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the authority to approve biosimilars.
At BIO, Greenwood also led the industry negotiations with Congress in hammering out the terms of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, a law that permits the FDA to secure user fees from brand-name drugmakers to help the agency cover the costs of its regulatory activities for approving new medicines.
The user fee program has been reauthorized every five years since it was initially created by Congress for brand-name drugs in 1992. It was last renewed in 2017.
BIO said Greenwood also played an integral role in the negotiations on Capitol Hill to pass the 21st Century Cures Act, a bill signed by President Barack Obama in December 2016 intended to overhaul the U.S. biomedical enterprise and give the FDA and the U.S. National Institutes of Health new resources and authorities.
Greenwood oversees the annual BIO International Convention — the world's largest annual biotechnology conference, which attracts about 18,000 people from 70 countries each year.
BIO said it had tripled in size with 176 employees and an $85 million operating budget under Greenwood's leadership.

BIO CEO Jim Greenwood